How many times has someone told you that you have to have an online presence for your business? Well, it is true, but it should be a site that has been optimised by an expert, like this freelance search services company.

Whatever kind of business you are in, a website will act as your sales person. Whether somebody is looking to buy a pizza, a house or a Learjet, they will search the Internet first for information.

But what do most people do next? They get a website created by the nearest teenager, and then settle down and expect thousands of people to visit it. However, you’re too clever to do that, you read the second line of this article and saw you needed it SEO optimised didn’t you? You might not know what it means, but it sounds good. And if it is done by a search engine optimisation expert you will get thousands of people visiting your site, and if your product is good enough it will sell.

But what is search engine optimisation, SEO. Well it is an Internet marketing technique which is very important in getting your website to the top of search engines. Therefore, if you own a pizza restaurant in Manchester, and somebody puts in a search on the Internet for pizza restaurants in Manchester, if your site has been optimised properly it should be the first one on the list, and you have probably got yourself another customer.

Now for the technical part, and it is helpful that you do have an understanding of what is going on. Search engines such as giants Google and Bing use algorithms to check out websites, and they do this in one of either two ways. They will either check it out when it has been submitted directly to them, or find it from another site that is linked to yours. If your SEO expert has done their job correctly they will probably use both ways. It is up to your chosen SEO company to show these search engines the way, and increase the amount of visitors to your site. Now are you beginning to see how important it is for your site to be optimised?

After an initial, but usually free, SEO consultation, the SEO guys will start work on your website. They will either suggest new content, or optimise the current content, create keywords (these are the words that most people use to search for your type of business) create meta tags and heading tags, and all sorts of wonderful things that the search engines want to see. They will also start marketing your website.

They will develop strategies so that search engines keep being reminded that you exist, by using such things as RSS feeds, syndicating articles and press releases, making blog comments, etc. They will employ somebody to write the articles and press releases who understands SEO. All these tactics mean that there are links all over the Internet pointing back to your site, which improves your ranking in the popular search engines.

As more and more people rely on the Internet for finding the services they want, you must increase your visibility in the search engines. If you do not get your site optimised you are going to lose business, or even lose your business.

It’s not fair. You want to get your piece of the e-commerce pie, but you don’t have the money to spend on advertisements like all those big sites like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. Do you have to be rich to get rich? Well, although you may have to spend a small outlay to get started on the Net with a domain name and Web hosting, you don’t need a multi-million dollar advertising budget to generate interest in your site. Here are a few ways you can get people to your site without spending a dime.

One of the most effective ways of generating free traffic for your site is to register your site with the major search engines and Web directories like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Lycos. Registration is free and ensures that your site is available to people who search for information related to your site’s content. A search engine is most people’s first stop when shopping or looking for information online, and you want to be sure that your site has a chance of coming up when they do a search.

Another way to generate free traffic, which is related to registering with search engines, is to produce the content on your pages in a way that encourages the search engines to rank your site higher in the search results. This practice is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and practically all successful sites engage in SEO in some fashion. Usually, this involves making sure certain popular keywords related to your page’s topic appear throughout your content so that the search engine associates your site with those terms. Although SEO can get fairly complicated, and the search engines have gotten quite sophisticated in detecting cheaters who try to engage in SEO practices without putting real content on their pages, this form of traffic-generating technique can be very effective if done right.

The most effective way to bring lots of traffic to your site is to give something away that a lot of people want. Some sites do it with high-quality content like a news site or a blog. Others provide a free service like letting people upload and download videos like Vimeo or providing a social network. Still, other sites give away free software that people want to like a Web browser, game or even a whole free operating system. People love getting things for free, so if you give away something that is popular, you will have volumes of free traffic that can really boost your ad revenue.

Finally, it just comes down to letting as many people know about your site as possible. Talk it up wherever you go. Tell your friends and family to their friends and families. Go to seminars, conferences, and expos and promote your site. List it on your profile at any Web sites that you are a member of. If you get in the mindset that you have to be your own salesperson, you will get free traffic to your site in no time.

Images are really very important to sites. They increase the value of the look, break up the text, and also help communicate a message. When considering Search engine optimizing, the code used in order to add an image delivers you with one additional optimization ability. It’s termed the ALT tag or alternative text, and once utilized properly can give your website an edge.

What is an ALT Tag? We Asked Keep SEO Simple, who offer SEO Services in Glasgow

We asked SEO Firm Keep SEO Simple, who provide SEO services in Glasgow what ALT tags are: “An ALT Tag is a text alternative of the image, which enables those who use screen readers and Google bots to find out what an image is. Search engine bots can’t read the text in images. To find out exactly what an image is about, it depends on ALT tags, the picture file label, and text around the picture.” The ALT tag is definitely an attribute that permits you to add more detailed text that will be indexed by engines like Google. Actually, if you don’t use ALT tags and don’t disallow pictures in your robots.txt, do a lookup for your Link at Google Images and then determine which usually words Google associates with your current images. Nearly all website design software program lets you add an ALT tag, otherwise, you are able to place it directly into the HTML. Below is an example of Html code using the image and ALT tag.

The objective of ALT Tags

The objective of the ALT tag is always to summarize the image. The alternative text seems when the image is actually loading if a person disables images in the web browser or mobile device, or they choose screen readers and text web browsers. In such cases, the ALT tag, or picture description, seems instead of the image or be read by a screen reader. Internet Explorer web browsers can even see the ALT tag whenever run a cursor on the image, provided the title tag is not also used.

Significance of ALT Tags

When considering Search engine optimization, the significance of the ALT tag lies in its power to help improve your web page ranking and if you decide to have images indexed, improve your visibility through image search. I personally don’t suggest allowing your images into the index; however, many Internet marketers favor this. In those instances, let’s say you sell blue widgets on your site, but don’t use the ALT tag. Search engine spiders won’t understand what your image is about and also your images won’t appear in image searches.

HQSEO, an seo company in Wales says they highly recommend using ALT Tags: “It’s something you just cannot miss, you are given an opportunity to optimize your website further and this is something you must take advantage of.”

Optimizing ALT Tags

Try to be simple, clear, and contextual when you use these tags. You need to describe a specific image in a couple of words, but with keywords that can help rank. Look into the top ten sites in Google for your keywords your webpage focuses on and see how they’re using ALT tags. Never keyword stuff (spam) the ALT tags not even if your rivals are! This may hurt, not help, your website. You should also use appropriate words, but change it up, don’t use the exact same phrase every time.

Facebook is the fastest growing social networking site today and will continue to grow over the next few years. In an age of new media, there are several varying ways to get website traffic from Facebook. Internet traffic is proven to increase your sales, build your lists and top up your SEO. There are several simple yet effective ways to get traffic from Facebook and drive more leads to your website. Here’s how!

Utilize Your Info Tab

Many fan pages tend to skip out fulfilling their info tabs. Be sure to do your research and find the best keywords to optimize your core description. This is one way to build your Facebook SEO which in turn will get website traffic. Absolutely add all relevant information and build your Info Tab before publishing your page.

Connectivity

Connect everything. A crucial way to get traffic from Facebook is to connect your blogs to your Facebook and Facebook to your website. Several people will only look at a website or social media outlet first. Having a re-direct to more relevant information is a must. When posting be sure to add posts that include direct links to your website, but do so cautiously without spamming your fans. Mathew Woodward shows you how here: http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/22-social-media-backlinks/

Build Your Facebook Network

Try finding fans that are looking for the product or service your website is offering. Be patient as half of building your fan base is viral. In return, it is a good idea to invite your lists that are already built to like your Facebook page.

Advertise

Facebook offers a simple yet efficient advertising platform. You will be able to reach out to potential customers and fans that may not have been aware of your website previously. Set up a simple ad with your website on the ad which will redirect back to your Facebook fan page.

Content is Key

It may seem trivial, but posting relevant content is an important step to getting more internet traffic. SEO comes into play once again, so be sure that when you post you are keeping it relevant and keyword loaded. Airsoft Deals, a UK airsoft shop creates content daily to keep their audience engaged and active within their community of fans.

Publish a Podcast or Webinar

Sometimes seeing is better than reading. If you have useful advice for your fans, generate a webinar and promote this to your fans as a “free gift.” Use this as a promotion to get website traffic. Included in your webinar speak of your website and encourage fans to visit.

Fans love experts and well-known celebrities in any given industry. Try obtaining an interview or relevant information from these given guests and publish this on your Facebook page. You can do a live interview or a recorded webinar. Look for Facebook users in the top of your industry and reach out to them!

Ask Questions and Accept Feedback

Ask your fans questions, specifically about your website. Bring up a specific topic from your website in a post and ask your fans what they think of it. An example would be this…If you are a company that offers social media consulting, ask your fans what their top problems are revolving Facebook. Providing solutions and answers to their questions will allow you to re-direct them back to your website.

Ask Influential Fans to Share Your Posts

Engage your fans and entice them to share your posts by offering contests and promotions without over spamming. Be sure to include your website when doing this, and you should see almost immediate results. You can also find fans who are willing to post your content in exchange for posting theirs. Be sure to be careful when doing this as it may come across as spam to your fans. To reduce this find relevant and influential people who are in the same industry as you.

Make Your Voice Heard

Always comment on other people’s Facebook fan page. Doing so will encourage them to do the same which in turn will produce a higher rate of fan conversion. Post relevant comments in a friendly demeanor and you should see the same results over time.